Read and listen to this text and fill in the blanks with the information you hear.
Choose phrases from the word bank.
if humans don't take
they can work on
if money is available
If these parks,
populations can recover
they will be able to
If wildlife is not protected, ...
don't depend
mportant national parks and wildlife reserves across Africa lost up to 60% of their lions, giraffes,
buffalo
and
other large wild animals between 1970 and 2005. due to their dependence on
international
money for protection, experts on the topic say
new projects to help these animals survive
on international help.
British scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the University of Cambridge studied
animal population changes where up to 85% of wildlife has been lost in the last 35 years, and in east
Africa almost half of its wildlife has disappeared. The cause of this change has been attributed mainly
to the lack of money, people needed to police parks, the growing bushmeat trade, as well as the
animals territory.
encroachment of humans on animal habitats,
reproduce and live longer time. As a result of the humans' encroachment
the numbers of elephants, hippos and other animals are believed to have also decreased in southern
Sudan.
The researchers said the loss of large mammals outside parks and reserves was much worse
with many species like rhino now practically extinct outside protected areas. In Kenya, a report
commissioned in 2009 said that the lion population was declining so fast that they could be extinct
there within 20 years.
Conservationists say that
Elephants and rhinos
appeared to be heading towards extinction in much of Africa in the 1980s, but governments backed
by western public opinion acted to protect them.
N Write your opinion. If wildlife in Africa is not protected, what effects in the environment will
it cause?
25